Launch of the national policy dialogue in Jordan

On 23 October 2013, the joint GWP-Med/OECD Project Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector launched the national policy dialogue in Jordan during a consultation workshop held in Amman.

Bringing together key government actors in the country’s water and wastewater sector, and opened by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Eng. Basem Telfah, the consultation workshop stimulated discussions on governance issues relating to public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the water sector. The workshop marked the beginning of a Policy Dialogue that will help build a shared consensus on the main obstacles to private sector involvement in Jordan’s water sector and identify concrete actions to overcome them based on best practice examples and internationally recognised tools.

The consultation workshop was held back-to-back with a meeting of key donors active in Jordan’s water sector that took stock of completed, on-going and planned projects so as to avoid duplication of efforts, identify potential synergies and better streamline the governance and financing analysis of the project with donor initiatives on the ground.

Both meetings were informed by a Scoping Note, shared with the participants in advance, and which forms the background of the Jordanian Policy Dialogue. The Scoping Note represents a document in progress, to be amended and enriched with input received by different stakeholders in the course of the Dialogue. A Report, reflecting on these and the collection of additional documents and including a diagnostic analysis and recommendations is under preparation.

The next Consultation Workshop, convening a larger range of stakeholders, is scheduled for early February 2014. It will provide the opportunity to discuss preliminary recommendations identified in the analytical report developed by the OECD in support of the policy dialogue.